Share this:

Linebacker Takeo Spikes said after the game that Dallas was only slightly better than the 49ers despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary in Sunday’s 35-22 loss to the Boys on Sunday. But after reviewing the game, Spikes might be right.

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz went into the game with a plan to attack the Cowboys’ secondary and in the first quarter that’s exactly what Shaun Hill did, throwing completions of 17, 21, 34 and 47 yards and getting the offense a first-and-goal at the Cowboys’ 4 twice. On their second drive from the 4 in the quarter, Fox commentator and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman said, “If the 49ers don’t punch it in here, they are going to have a real hard time keeping up with Dallas because it’s going to be such an emotional let down.”

The 49ers didn’t punch it in either time, and Aikman was right – emotionally, the 49ers never recovered. With a five-year history of losing, this team typically plays without confidence, which makes it unable to handle most emotional let downs. After a brilliantly productive first quarter, the 49ers mentally checked out in the second quarter and by that time, the game was over.

So what happened in the red zone on those two drives? During Friday’s practice, the team’s red zone plays looked crisp and effective, why didn’t that translate into the game?

First, the 49ers couldn’t run at all, and secondly, they made mistakes and were the recipients of a horrible call.

Here’s a break down:

First series:

First-and-goal from the 4: Hill rolls right and looks for Isaac Bruce short or Bryant Johnson in the back of the end zone. Bruce gets decked from behind by a linebacker and he’s out of the play. Johnson is well covered by Terence Newman, so Hill throws the ball away.

Second-and-goal: Frank Gore tries to run up the middle on a trap play, but Chilo Rachal misses his block on nose tackle Jay Ratcliff. Gore bounces to the left and gets pulled down by DeMarcus Ware for a loss of a yard.

Third-and-goal from the 5: The Cowboys put nearly everybody on the line of scrimmage and then they go with their standard 3-4 defense against the 49ers’ three-receiver look. They rush six, and the 49ers protect with six. Hill unleashes the ball under two seconds and has Bryant Johnson open on a quick slant in the end zone. The ball is thrown high but it’s catchable except for cornerback Anthony Henry who drapes himself over Johnson and the ball is incomplete. No call. Hill can’t believe it and neither can radio commentators Joe Starkey and Gary Plummer and television announcers Aikman and Joe Buck. However, if Hill had thrown more accurately, Henry’s coverage probably wouldn’t have mattered.

Second series:

First-and-goal from the 4: The 49ers go with three receivers on first down and they get exactly what they want: Johnson against Henry again isolated on the left side. Johnson runs a fade, Hill crests the ball perfectly to him, and Johnson drops it. It was a tough chance, but Johnson had the ball perfectly thrown to him.

Second-and-goal: from the 4: Another run, another trap, another penetration by Ratcliff and no gain by Gore.

Third-and-goal: Same play as third down on the prior series, with Johnson lined up in the slot to the right. The Cowboys overload to the 49ers’ left, and when the Cowboys send six, the line shifts to the left except for one player – Chilo Rachal. Ratcliff bores in on Hill cleanly who throws errantly behind Johnson, who beats Henry on a quick slant. The 49ers settle for a field goal again and that’s your ball game.

“We have a very small margin of error,” 49ers coach Mike Singletary said at his Monday news conference. Singletary also said that Rachal didn’t play well. “He played like a rookie,” Singletary said, “He’ll play better this week.”

Curious. Even though the 49ers had to play well in nearly every aspect to beat the more talented Cowboys, they elected to play a rookie, and his growing pains cost them. Do you sacrifice the entire team to bring along a rookie? Singletary believes that you do.

It makes me think Singletary will be the head coach next season.

Other highlights of Singletary’s meeting with the media:

- He talked to Martz about the two series mentioned above and said if Martz could call different plays he would. Dallas blitzed a lot from the inside on those downs, which is something they hadn’t shown in that situation before. For me, the play-calling wasn’t the issue; it was execution.

- Singletary said defensively, he wouldn’t changed how he covered Terrell Owens. On film, other teams had success jamming Owens at the line and disrupting his route. The Cowboys moved him around and stacked him behind another receiver at times, which freed him up. Apparently the 49ers didn’t adjust. Singletary said if they’d paid more attention to T.O., then that would have freed up the Cowboys other weapons. He said on the 75-yard touchdown, Nate Clements didn’t stay on top in the cover 3 defense (meaning three defensive backs split the three deep zones). Obviously, the 49ers need to do a better job of adjusting during the game.

- Singletary said one reason the Cowboys are better than the 49ers is they’re entrenched in what they do. Bill Parcells installed a 3-4 defense and Dallas still plays it. They still run the timing offense of Norv Turner that they ran in the glory years. He said the 49ers don’t have an identity and he’s absolutely right. But asked what the team’s identity should be, he just offered empty statements such as “playing with heart” and playing “physical.” Every team from Pop Warner on up wants to play that way.

Singletary did say when a defense has seven players in the box, Frank Gore should run more often than not. That’s really the only clue to what kind of offensive system he wants. The inability to identify what the 49ers is what keeps the 49ers stuck in the current morass. Until they figure out what kind of organization they want to be and what kind of offensive and defensive systems they want to install, the team will continue to drift.